Adam Leonti's book entitled "Flour Lab"

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Mark M. on 16 Jan 2025 at 15:52

Greetings,

 

I recently purchased a copy of "Flour Lab" by Adam Leonti.  The recipe entitled "Sourdough Durum Loaf"  on page 94 caught my eye.  The author states that he found a sourdough starter at 90% hydration gave better results with bread doughs featuring Durum than the same starter at 100% hydration.  He refers the reader to page 91 to learn how to prepare a starter at 90% hydration - the discussion begins at the bottom of the left-hand column.  Would anyone with a copy of "Flour Lab" please review the first paragraph of this discussion on page 91?  Does his explanation (i.e. the calculations) make sense to you?  I came up with a different set of numbers.  I want to be sure of the procedure to make the sourdough starter before attempting this recipe.

 

Very kindest regards....

I don't have the book, but if you show your calculations, I could verify if your numbers are correct.

Thank you Alcophile,

I understand Mr. Leonti's example as follows for the preparation of a starter at 90% hydration:  discard starter (50 g. , 100% hydration) is combined with water (50 g.) and flour (110 g.).

The recipe for "Sourdough Durum Loaf" specifies 510 g. warthog levain at 90% hydration, but is silent as to how to prepare this levain.  I intend to prepare 600 g. of levain, reserving 90 g. to propagate the starter.  I intend to prepare the levain with mother starter (20% of levain by weight, 120 g., 100% hydration).  I calculated that I will need to use warthog flour (256 g.), water (224 g.) and mother starter (120 g. at 100% hydration) to prepare the levain (600 g., 90% hydration).  My calculations involved two equations with two unknowns.

I again thank you in advance.  Very kindest regards....